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July 30, 2008

The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

Anyone who knows me even tangentially knew what today's post was going to be about before you clicked on through.

Yesterday was the long awaited public unveiling of the next generation of jetpacks. Yes, the jetpack, which science fiction comics, TV shows and movies have promised us since at least the 1920s when Buck Rogers flew one.

In the 1960s, James Bond flew one in Thunderball and we were told they were right around the corner in real life.

In the 1990s, The Rocketeer had one and we were promised they were going to be available any minute.

Heck, just last month I saw Iron Man fly a jetpack built into his suit and as I drove away from the theater I noticed I was in a car, not a jetpack. Again. And I wept.

All that was supposed to change yesterday when the first long range personal human transporter was unveiled at an air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Martin Jetpack (details here) does make several noticeable improvements over anything that's flown before. It runs on regular gasoline, rises to about 8000 feet (although I am not clear why that is the top altitude), and, most importantly, allows one to fly for about 30 minutes.

On the down side, the technology is still nowhere near as compact as the backpack-sized device we've been expecting. Plus it's still about $100,000 - I know! - and seems like it might still have some stability problems on windy days like yesterday at the exhibition.

See the underwhelming video of that "flight" here but definitely check out MartinJetpack.com for updates periodically because this is a work in progress (and a lifetime labor of love for Mr. Glenn Martin) and they are headed in the right direction with it. Please let me live long enough to fly one one day. Even if it is literally the last thing I do.

Do you really need to go 8000 feet in the air? what if the engine dies? A jetpack would be much more useful if you could glide to the bathroom, glide to the kitchen, glide to get the remote, and glide on back to the couch.

I think they 8000' limit is to prevent hypoxia...since this has such a small radar profile would this be considered a possible terrorist vehicle? it would be fun to just buzz the local moutains, farms or beaches with one of these...but honestly I think TMZ and the paps will be all over this cameras in hand snapping away like turtles.

In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift the protagonist encountered a vessel which worked on the polarity of earth's gravity. It had a huge magnet which the pilot would play against the earth's polarity. Repeling polarities would cause the vessel to rise into the air, attracting polarities would cause the vessel to descend. It is amazing that we have never used this process to fly. I think the bullet trains in Japan use it to make the trains travel the speeds they do.

Are you sure 8,000 feet was not a typo and they meant 8 feet. Does each jet pack come with directions on hiring two retired NBA players to hold each side just in case you actually have enough fuel to even reach the 8 feet?